Martyrdoms usually "take place." 
 
        That is, they occur at very specific locations. A sense of place and often of date or datable

events is a very prominent feature of most martyrdoms. For Ignatius it will be Rome; for Stephen

it was Jerusalem;  for Polycarp it was Smyrna. 
 
        Such clear association with time and place is absent from the similar accounts of

martyrdoms that we find in 2 and 4 Maccabees (Macc). That is, a priest, Eleazar, as well as

seven sons in the presence of their mother, endure torture and death in the presence of

Antiochus IV Epiphanes, rather than eat swine's flesh. However, the reader does not learn at

the outset whether Antiochus and the martyrs are in Antioch or in Jerusalem, or in Modiin, as

we might suppose from 1 Maccabees. 
 
        This paper seeks to review and resolve the question of place with respect to 4 Macc,

specifically whether a provenance in Asia Minor is tenable. The focus of this paper is on the

story of martyrdom by torture as it is told at length in 4 Macc. The narrative itself begins in the

fifth chapter of the book. Preceding the narrative, there are three chapters of preamble setting

the subject of discourse as the sovereign capacity of reason--the rulership of pious reason over

the emotions. A good recent review of this philosophical setting for 4 Macc occurs in John J.

Collins's fifth chapter of From Athens to Jerusalem (1983:187-191). After the three chapters of

introductory Greek rhetoric, the fourth chapter of 4 Macc takes a narrative turn. It tells of the

raid on temple funds by one Apollonius, called Heliodorus in 2 Macc. The book of 4 Macc, as

we have it, then returns to the "philosophical" theme of pious reason, (O EU/SEBES

LOGISMOS/. The story of themartyrdoms is fitted to the philosophical preamble as an

exemplary tale of the way in which religious reason, aided by God-given Law, can govern over

bodily passions.  
 
        The following fourteen chapters intersperse graphic details of tortures with lofty

philosophies, speeches, and possible contradictions. As one such contradiction, the mother is

not on stage until Antiochus invites her to speak to her seventh son, thinking that she will want

at least one son to remain alive. She speaks to him (12.7) in Hebrew, which Antiochus does not

know. This is a signal for a "biter bit" (man bites dog) reversal, and an audience for the tale

knows to expect some trickery. Hadas notes this as well; to him it represents "the introduction

of an unexpected prospect of reversal before the final catastrophe."  Such a device, he

mentions, is a regular technique in Greek tragedy (1953:207,n8).  
 
        Later the reader learns that, oddly enough, she has been speaking to her sons all along,

without her speeches being given. In Chapter 16, the author begins to give her words in an

hypothetical speech to all her sons. That is to say, the words given to her are contrary to

qualities the author has just praised, "If the woman had been weak in spirit, . . .  she would have

    On the contrary,. . .by her supplications she rather encouraged them to death for religion's sake. Mother, soldier of God through religion, Elder, woman! By your constancy you have vanquished even the tyrant; and by your deeds and your words discovered yourself more stalwart than a man. For when you were seized, along with your children, you stood firm, as you watched Eleazar undergoing torture; and you said to your children--speaking in Hebrew: "My sons, noble is the contest; and since you are summoned to it in order to bear testimony for your nation, strive zealously on behalf of the Law of our fathers. `Twere shame indeed that this old man should endure agonies for the sake of religion, and you who are young should be terrified of torments. Remember that it is because of God that you have a share in the [[231]] world, and have enjoyed life:. . . (4 Macc 16:13-18, tr. in Hadas, 1953:229, 231)

sons, and  bade them die rather than transgress the commandment of God;" (4 Macc 16:24, tr.

in Hadas, 1953:231, emphasis mine.) Thus, implicitly, the mother spoke to each of her sons

before his martyrdom. It seems  that all of the activity of the mother is collected in one place in

4 Macc.

        In the end, Chapter 18, the author of 4 Macc relents, and when all need to supply details

of time  and place is gone with the end of the story, tells us that Antiochus could not force the

people of Jerusalem  to change, and so he left Jerusalem and marched against the

Persians.

         Still, that final sense of the place of these events does not give us the provenance of the

book.  The absence of detail might be taken to suggest either that the author reshaped 4

Macc from another  source or that the author lived in the Diaspora and knew nothing of

Jerusalem--or perhaps both. However,  there is simply no information available to us on this

point. There is comparative information, however, that  suggests that the lack of detail about

place is a feature of "evolved literature,"  i.e. the Epistle of Barnabas,  which used previous

literature, at a minimum, in the "two ways" section (Kraft, 1965: 1-12). That is, we  might

expect that 4 Macc lacks detail about the place of action because it is an adaptation of an

earlier  account, and the details have dropped out or been modified.

         Nineteenth-century writers such as Grimm and Gfrörer supposed the origin to be

Alexandria,  since so much else of the literature of Hellenistic Judaism came from there

(Hadas, 1953:110 and n. 39).  In addition, the philosophical ideas which 4 Macc shares with

Philo support an argument for Alexandrian  provenance. According to Hugh Anderson, 4 Macc

can be characterized as having the following features:

        The author is acquainted with neo-Platonic, neo-Pythagorean, Stoic, and Philonic

philosophical  principles. Especially does he share with Philo and the writer of the Wisdom of

Solomon a firm  belief in the Greek doctrine of the immortality of the soul (9:22; 14:5-6; 16:13;

17:12; 18:23)....he  purposely omits ...passages [from 2 Macc] which attest the resurrection of

the body (7:9, 11, 14,  22-23) (Anderson, Anchor Bible Dictionary, henceforth ABD, IV:453B). I

would add that resemblances to the Wisdom of Solomon, in shared imagery, philosophy and

linguistic  features, suggest that both may stem from the same place. David Winston (ABD,

VI:123) and John J.  Collins (1983: 182) both believe Wisdom of Solomon belongs to

Alexandria, and this makes it more  difficult to rule out Alexandria.

         On the other hand, Edouard Norden, in his 1923 book, Die  Antike Kunstprosa,

classified the  features of various Greek styles. He names one of these the Asianic style, and

cited 4 Macc as an  example. Then because its stylistic features differ from other works

known to be from Alexandria, he  rejects Alexandrian provenance for this style.  Norden's

Asianic style has the noteworthy feature of a  large number of compound words. A fondness

for compounds can be found in Ignatius of Antioch and in  the Wisdom of Solomon, the latter

supposedly from Alexandria. Norden's very thin argument can be  buttressed by the

observations of Thackeray and Swete that 4 Macc does not share the language of the

Septuagint--in the larger sense that I'll represent  here with LXX/OG, following Kraft. That is,

though  written in Greek, the  language and style of 4 Macc depart considerably from the

"Alexandrian Greek" of  the LXX/OG collection. In addition, as Swete noted
 

    The style of 4 Macc. abounds in false ornament and laboured periods. But on the whole it  is "truly Greek," and approaches nearer than that of any other book in the Greek Bible to the  models of Hellenic philosophy and rhetoric. It does not, however, resemble the style of Josephus  [whom Eusebius (HE 3.10) designated as the author], and is more probably a product of  Alexandrian Judaism during the century before the fall of Jerusalem. (Swete, 1900: 281; see also  pp. 313f.)

language.  "No other book in the Greek Bible is so manifestly Alexandrian in tone and style,"

according to Swete  (1900:268). Winston concurs that it is of Alexandrian provenance (ABD,

VI:120), based on the extensive  discussion of Egypt in the last half of the book.  I would

suggest that this no more gives provenance than  does our mention of Jerusalem in 4 Macc,

since any mention of Egypt may be reference to the Exodus,  and an extended description

may accompany a celebration of Passover. In any case the arguments both  for and against

Alexandrian provenance rest on stylistic and literary features.

        Antioch has been suggested as the provenance of 4 Macc. The extensive work of André

Dupont- Sommer (1939) established the historical case in detail. He argued that the Christian

cult of Maccabean  martyrs located at Antioch was founded upon a Jewish cult of the heroes,

that had maintained the actual  tomb and relics of the martyrs. Their appropriation by

Christians was noted by Augustine, in North Africa,  and the very notation presupposes that the

relics had previously -- previously to  363-385 C.E. -- been  held by Jews.         Moses Hadas,

discussing the date of 4 Macc, added the early association of Antioch with the  actions of

Petronius, who received the unwelcome word from Gaius Caligula (37-41 c.e.) that it was his

task to place the Emperor's statue in the Temple at Jerusalem (Hadas, 1953:96). The train of

events, and  the sizable body of Jews who non-violently seek martyrdom rather than see the

Temple desecrated, is  attested in both Philo (Ad Gaium 185-190) and Josephus (Ant 18.262-

272).

        Dating 4 Macc at this time of the Roman Period, between 20 - 54 c.e., as Hadas does

(1953:96),  solves our provenance problem in one way, because at that time the Roman

administrative unit was Syria or Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia, Cilicia being in the

southeast corner of Asia Minor, adjacent to  Antioch.

       In 1945, in the process of establishing the date of 4 Macc, Bickerman noted in passing

that later  times saw a synagogue of the martyrs in Bochara, as well as bodily remains in

Antioch, Constantinople,  Rome, and Cologne.

       Writing more recently, with review articles in both Charlesworth's Old Testament

Pseudepigrapha (1985) (OTP, II:531543) and the Anchor Bible Dictionary (ABD, IV:452-4),

Hugh  Anderson reprises Norden's sense of the Asianic style of 4 Macc, though he notes in

his OTP review that  people--and therefore their writing styles--travel and cannot be clearly

fixed.

         We are left to decide among four possible locations--for I would not now exclude Judea

so readily  as non-Greek--Alexandria, Judea, Syria and Asia Minor.

         This suggests to me that we have what scientific method calls a null hypothesis -- the

hypothesis  that there is no detectible difference between Alexandria, Judea, Antioch, and

Asia Minor on any  "measure" of provenance. There is also no "measure" of provenance that

is common to the four locations  in the material I have reviewed--that is, style is hard to

localize, and may tend to favor Asia Minor over  Alexandria, without a clearcut way of

confirming the assessment. The amassing of later historical detail  establishing a cult of

martyrs at Antioch may give a firmer sense of location, but begins about 200 years  after we

think 4 Macc was written. In this situation, I'd suggest, we need to rethink the problem.

Scientific methods proceed by disconfirming the null hypothesis of no difference -- in our case

this  is an hypothesis of no difference between locations. This disconfirmation of the null

hypothesis of no  difference requires, though, that we apply the same measure, defined in the

same way, to all four  locations. What measure is available that is commensurate with all four

locations? I would submit, in not  very much detail at this point, that we can develop a measure

called "response to persecution." This  involves making objective determinations on those

martyrdoms and some apocalyptic materials that do  have a strong sense of place.

Developing such a measure resembles the sort of decision-tree  that Jonathan Z. Smith takes

us  through in his essay "Fences and Neighbors: Some Contours of Early Judaism," found in

Imagining  Religion (1982). It is by assembling a series of judgments about a particular written

work that we amass  information that can be treated statistically to make a determination

among places. Primary sources which  speak of response to martyrdom would be read with

particular objective questions in mind, such as
 

•         Does the account mention fasting?
•         Does it mention prayers?
•         Is the Temple threatened?
•         Is it definitely the Jerusalem Temple?
•         Is it hostile to the oppressor?
•         Are people surrounding the martyr forgiven?
•         Is the martyr female?
•         Is a major character female?
•         Is there a clear reference to Daniel?

treated to  discriminate between locations.

        -- That's one approach  --

        The second approach is to find more information about 4 Macc which recasts the

problem in a  different shape. This would be possible with more information about the text of 4

Macc. Does more  information about the text exist?  The reviewers I've cited have themselves

cited the publication of the  Syriac of 4 Macc, by Bensly, in 1895. They appear to be referring

to the translation of 4 Macc into Syriac.  No one has yet noted that in this volume of Syriac

texts related to 4 Macc, there exists a form of the  narrative of 4 Macc that echoes the

narrative details, though not the rhetorical flourishes, of 4 Macc.

        Bensly's name is allied with that of Barnes, as the latter posthumously published Bensly's

collection of Syriac documents describing the Passion  of the Maccabean Martyrs. Among the

documents  in this collection now termed Bensly-Barnes, is an undated Syriac "memra" or

`word,' -- or `homily'--by an  unknown hand. It is a poem which appears to be set loosely in

trimeter with rhymed endings, which names  the mother of 7 sons as Shamuni, and provides for

her a speech to strengthen each son before his torture  (Bensly-Barnes, 1895: xlviii- lxxii)

Although this book, termed Bensly-Barnes, is cited in much of the later work I've reviewed, I

need  to point out that one source, Hadas, reproduces an error found in an earlier source,

Dupont-Sommer, in  characterizing the book. Therefore we cannot be confident that either of

them examined Bensly's work in  detail. Otherwise, the articles reviewed have commented on

the comparison of the Peshitta translation  with the Greek text of 4 Maccabees, and

overlooked the additional pieces in Syriac on what looks to be  the thematic material of 4

Maccabees. This is in spite of the addition by Barnes of footnotes indicating that  the text of

the anonymous memra corresponds to 4 Maccabees in 38 places. These notes, however,

seem to isolate a line here and a line there as directly comparable, rather than making plain

the exact  duplication of details of the torture narratives throughout large sections. The

appendix to this paper shows  the overall similarity of the central narrative section.

         A group of comparisons favor the dating of this central section, witnessed by both texts,

prior to or  contemporary with the usual dating of 4 Macc, specifically

        1) The 4 Macc narrator puts the mother's speeches at the end of the book, but also says
    that she  earlier spoke to her sons as a group, as we saw above, and also strengthened
    each one  individually. This is the existing sequence of the Syriac version. Appendix 1
    outlines the difference  in sequence and similarity in statement of the two recensions.

        2) The Syriac lacks the elaborate rhetoric and praise of pious reason of 4th Macc, which
    provides  the literary and conceptual framework for 4th Macc. In turn 4 Macc lacks the
    pious hymns to each of the martyrs, which provides a minimally Christian veneer to the
    narrative of the martyrs who  died for the sake of their Law and customs.

         3) The simplicity in story presentation of the Syriac version tends to argue for the
    earliness of the  preserved narrative section, though this feature cannot stand alone.

        4) The Syriac version of the central narrative agrees detail by detail with 4 Macc on the
    order of  the tortures, and both disagree with 2 Macc on this matter.

        5) In both the mother throws herself into the fire at the end, and dies. In 4 Macc, the
    author adds  the introductory words "Certain of the guards declared that when she too was
    about to be seized and put to  death, she flung herself into the fire, so that no one might
    touch her body (4 Macc. 17:1,  tr. in Hadas, 1953:222f)."

    This seems to be a backhanded method of quotation of an earlier source, now that we

know another  version exists. Such an allusion does not occur in the Syriac homily,

however.

        Some additional features of this Syriac homily suggest the possibility of an early date for

most of  the work.

        1) The ideology of martyrdom expressed in the Syriac homily is highly antagonistic to
    the oppressor. It seems to be prior to Luke's words given to Jesus on the Cross, "Father,
    forgive them, for  they know not what they do," (Luke 23.34--only) or Stephen's "Lord, do
    not hold this sin against them (Acts  7.60)," or the story later told of Hananiah ben Teradion,
    a rabbinic martyr in the early second century, who  invited his executioner to be with him
    in the life of the world to come that very day. Tabor's ABD article on  "Martyrs" cites
    b.Avod.Zar 18)  (ABD, IV:578). That is, both Jewish and Christian expressions of
    martyrdom between ca. 100 c.e. to the private papers of Joan of Arc lack the vengeful tone
    that is present  in this Syriac version. The scorn and portrayal of retribution resemble the
    tone found in the sectarian  literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This indicates that the style
    of the central narrative in the Syriac version  reflects an early text. Notably, the hymns to
    each martyr, which have a different rhyme scheme, are milder  than the torture narratives. It
    is these paeans or hymns, along with an introduction, which carry the  Christian references.
    The central narrative has no references at all which can be understood as  exclusively
    Christian in character.
        In contrast to the mild tone of the hymns, the Maccabean martyrs of the Syriac homily
    are  triumphantly angry at their torturers, and at Antiochus Epiphanes, and repeatedly
    contrast their  expectation of heaven with their tormentors' eternal writhings in hellfire. This
    antagonism to the oppressor  also exists, in diminished force, in 4 Macc.

        2)  The ideology of martyrdom of Shamuni and her seven sons, though not endorsed by
    the priest  Eleazar, expresses the expectation of immediate resurrection which we know
    from Daniel, 2 Macc, and  Testament of Moses (OTP, I:919-934), among others. An
    overview of the development of the ideology of  resurrection is available in Tabor (Droge &
    Tabor, 1992:53-84)
         The ideology of 4 Maccabees expresses the sense that martyrdom is a magical act; by
    enduring  to the end, God guarantees the martyr a place in heaven immediately. This
    magical act prevents intense  suffering in the world to come, while waiting for the final
    judgment, or Day of the Lord. It also seems to  prevent one's own sins being weighed.
    There is a further interesting contrast with the (later?) development of the idea that it is most
    noble  to endure self-inflicted death, rather than permit oneself to be tortured. Jotapata and
    Masada, as recorded  by Josephus, are the examples given by Tabor (Droge & Tabor,
    1992:86- 96).

            I would also suggest that this new old Syriac version of the story of  Maccabean

martyrs,  in  combination with earlier material, will provide more historical-critical and

philological information about  location. For example, in the Syriac version Eleazar scorns

food other than that of the holy sacrifices of  the Temple, which his status as priest entitles

him to eat. This is a small indicator that the Temple in Jerusalem still exists. It is an additional

indicator that the scene is Jerusalem, and a detail that argues mildly against the Diaspora for

the origin of the central narrative of tortures.

          Another example--both recensions use "incorruptibility"--Greek AFQARTW--in the

same  place as fire, and a search of the TLG data base of inscriptions yields a stack of 5 or 6

non-monotheist  inscriptions from Ephesus which speak of incorruptible fire. The prevalence

of the idea in later Christian  theology, and its foundations, would be interesting to explore.

        Nevertheless, there are some problems. The Syriac poem includes an introduction and

periodic hymns which are clearly set apart because they follow a different rhyme scheme.

These sections also  express themselves in a devotional manner which is quite different from

the style of the martyrology itself.  Similarly, the Greek version we call 4 Maccabees has a

long introduction and additional included material  which carry the theme of praise for pious

reason.

         In summary the problem of incommensurable types of information and a single source

has  hampered previous attempts to assign provenance to 4 Macc. I have reviewed the

available evidence,  without fully resolving the question at hand. However, I have suggested

two new ways in which research on this question might proceed, to greater definition.
 

Content                         Rhyme                Com      Corresponds to
Description                     Scheme      Lines    ment     4 Maccabees
=============================================================================
  In praise of pious reason                    --              1.1 - 4.14
Epic introduction                     -na    1  18                --   
Approach                              -ra   19  31                -- 
Adoration                             -ra   32  50                --
Central Narrative of Torture          -ta   51  71     A       4.15- 4.16 end
Central Narrative of Torture          hue   72  78     B       5.1 - 5.4
  Speech of Antiochus to Eleazar      -ba   79- 82            (5.5 - 5.13)
  Speech of Eleazar to Antiochus      -ia   83 105            (5.14- 5.38)
Central Narrative of Torture          -da  106 118             6.1 - 6.3
  Additional acts by torturers        -pa  119-123             6.4 - 6.15
  Pious prayer of martyr              -pa  124 132            (6.16- 6.23)
  Additional acts by torturers               --                6.24- 6.25
  Pious prayer of martyr (continued)                          (6.26 -6.30)
  Hymn to "religious reason"                 --                6.31- 6.36
  Paean to Eleazar "Ah, priest..."           --                6.37- 7.15
  Argument for "religious reason"            --                7.16- 8.1
Central Narrative of Torture         -sha  133-144             8.2 - 8.5
  Speech of Antiochus                -sha  145-161             8.6 - 8.11
Central Narrative of Torture          -qa  162-169             8.12- 8.13
  Speech of Antiochus                 -qa  170-176             8.14- 8.15
  Rhetoric "They might have replied"         --                8.16- 8.28

  Speech of All the Sons              -la  177-200 [ideology]  8.29- 9.9  
Central Narrative of Torture          -na  201-206             9.10- 9.11a

  Speech of Shamuni to Son No. 1      -na  207-211  [El Shaddai, ideology]
Central Narrative of Torture          -na  212-217             9.11b-9.13
  Speech of Son No. 1 to Antiochus    -na  218-225             9.14- 9.16
  Dialogue with his tormentors        -na  226-230             9.17- 9.18
Central Narrative of Torture          -na  231-238             9.19- 9.21
  Speech of Son No. 1 to his brothers -na  239-247             9.22- 9.25
      Paean to Son No. 1 "O Gaddi"     -i  248-260  [El Shaddai]  --- 

  Speech of Shamuni to Son No. 2      -ta  261-268                ---
Central Narrative of Torture          -ta  269-276             9.26- 9.28
      Ecstatic commentary             -ta  277-280                ---
  Speech of Son No. 2 to Antiochus    -ta  281-291             9.29- 9.31
      Paean to Son No. 2 "O Maccabai"  -i  292-303                ---

  Speech of Shamuni to Son No. 3      -xa  304-314  [if you die, you live]
Central Narrative of Torture          -xa  315-317            10.1 -10.1
  Speech of Son No. 3 to his torturers-xa  318-327            10.2 -10.4
Central Narrative of Torture          -in  328-336            10.5 -10.8
  Speech of Son No. 3 to Antiochus    -in  337-343            10.9 -10.11
      Paean to Son No. 3 "O Tharsai"  -si  344-360  [Jesus the Adamantine]

  Speech of Shamuni to Son No. 4      -na  361-374                ---
Central Narrative of Torture          -na  375-379            10.12-10.13
  Speech of Son No. 4 to his torturers-na  380-391            10.14-10.16
Central Narrative of Torture          -ma  391-394            10.17-10.17
  Speech of Son No. 4 to Antiochus    -ma  395-400            10.18-10.21
Ecstatic commentary                   -ma  401-405  [Greek chorus?]
      Paean to Son No. 4 "O Hebron"   -on  406-419                ---

  Speech of Shamuni to Son No. 5      -ia  420-431  [Spoke to him in Hebrew]
Central Narrative of Torture          -ia  432-433            11.1 -11.1
  Speech of Son No. 5 to the judge    -ia  434-446 "tyrant"   11.2 -11.8
Central Narrative of Torture      -hi/hoo  447-453            11.9 -11.11
  Speech of Son No. 5 to the tyrant   "    454-458            11.12-11.12
      Paean to Son No. 5 "O Hebhzon" -zon  459-475                ---

  Speech of Shamuni to Son No. 6      -ta  476-485                ---
Central Narrative of Torture          -ta  486-491            11.13-11.13
  Speech of son to "unjust judge"     -ta  492-501 "tyrant"   11.14-11.16
Central Narrative of Torture          -in  502-511            11.17-11.19
  Speech of Son No. 6 to wicked man   -in  512-520            11.20-11.27 end
Central Narrative of Torture          -in  521-524            12.1a-12.1a
      Paean to Son No. 6 "O Bacchus"  -os  525-540                ---
            "Josephus" interlude      -os  541-546  [Stephen, Athanasius etc.]     
  Speech of Shamuni to Son No. 7       -h  547-554                ---
Central Narrative of Torture           -h  555-560            12.1b-12.2
  Speech of the king to Son No. 7      -h  561-568 "tyrant"   12.3 -12.5
Central Narrative of Torture           -h  569-571            12.6 -12.7
  Speech of Shamuni to Son No. 7       -h  572-576  [in Hebrew] <implied>
Central Narrative of Torture           -h  577-581            12.8 -12.10
  Speech of Son No. 7 to king         -lk  582-597 "tyrant"   12.11-12.18
Central Narrative of Torture          -na  598-601            12.19-12.19
      Paean to Son No. 7 "Jonadab"     -b  602-613                ---

      Efficacy of pious reason proved        ---              13.1 -13.7
Noble death of Shamuni                 -t  614-628            17.1 -17.1
      Paean to Shamuni                -ni  629-641                ---
      Hymn "O mother with seven sons"        ---              17.2 -17.6
      ==>Ending, material only in Greek      ---              17.7- 18.24

      Non-parallel interlude [see below]     ---              13.18-16.13
Address to Shamuni                    -in  642-646]           16.14-16.15
  Speech of Shamuni to her seven sons -in  647-661 [Hebrew]   16.16-16.20
      Recalls Daniel & three cast in fire    ---              16.21-16.23

Epic ending                           -ta  662-672            13.8 -13.13
      Mastery comes from divine reason       ---              13.14-13.15

Peroration enjoining `self-government'-ta  673-678            13.16-13.17
      Each urges the other not to shame us   ---              13.18-13.18

        ==>Begin interlude
      Praise of brotherhood                  ---              13.19-14.1
      Paean to Reason & Brotherhood          ---              14.2 -14.16
      Praise of the mother "even a woman,""like Abraham"      14.17-15.13
      Hymn "O mother"                        ---              15.16-15.20
      Value of devout reason to the mother   ---              15.21-15.28
      Hymn "O mother of the nation, champion of the Law"      15.29-15.32 end
      "If a woman..." proves value of devout reason           16.1 -16.4
      She could have said, instead -reversal ---              16.5 -16.11
      Yet she actually did as we've seen     ---              16.12-16.13
      Hymn "Mother, soldier of God..., Elder, woman" ==> see parallels above
=============================================================================

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABD = The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992) Ed. D.N. Freedman, inter alia.  New York: 
Doubleday,  IV:574-579.  
 
Anderson, Hugh (1985) "4 Maccabees (First Century A. D.): A New Translation and Introduction," 
in Charlesworth, Ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 2. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,  
pp. 531-563. 
 
--------------. "Maccabees, Books of. Fourth Maccabees," 4:452-454. 
 
Bensly, Robert Lubbock. The Fourth Book of Maccabees and Kindred Documents in Syriac, First 
Edited on Manuscript Authority. Posthumously introduced, with translations, by William Emery Barnes.  
Cambridge: University Press, 1895. [Bensly-Barnes]

This volume contains a "Mêmra by an unknown hand," pp. xlviii-lxxii (English--Barnes) and corresponding M)MR) D(L MQBY), the Syriac text, from three mss. as critically edited and prepared for printing by Bensly and published by Barnes, with one ms. identified by Barnes as Bodleian Or. 624 (=134 of Payne Smith's Catalogue).

--------, (1997) The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish People: A Study of 2 
and 4 Maccabees. Supplements to the JSJ, 57. Leiden: Brill
 
--------, Ed. (1989) Die Entstehung der jüdischen Martyrologie. Studia Post-Biblica, no. 38. Leiden: Brill.

Jonge, Marinus de (1991) "VI. Jesus' Death for Others and the Death of the Maccabean Martyrs," in Jewish Eschatology, Early Christian Christology and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: Collected Essays of Marinus de Jonge. Leiden: Brill, pp. 125-134. 
 
Klein, Michael L. (1986) Genizah Manuscripts of Palestinian Targum to the Pentateuch. Volume 1: Texts.  Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College Press. 
 
Tabor, James D. (1992) "Martyr, Martyrdom", ABD.
 
Zeitlin, Solomon (1922) MEGILLAT TAANIT as a Source for Jewish Chronology and History in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. Philadelphia.